#883: Read the Schedule Like a Pro

Britt and Tiff talk about how to look outside your department’s corner of the schedule, including the power of X’s and slashes and why this method will set your practice up for success.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:07.502)

Hello, Dental A Team. I am so excited today. I normally bring you Dana. She is my tried and true like can grab you in a pinch podcaster. And today I'm so excited. I am podcasting with the one and only, no BS, Britt. Brittany Stone is here with us today. Britt, thank you so much for being open to this. I know I like last minute through it on our schedule this week. Totally appreciate you.

 

How are you? Welcome back to the podcasting world. How are you?

 

Britt (00:39.891)

I it's been a little while. I've done like some book club, but it's been a while since I've been on with consultants. So I'm excited to be here doing good. I mean, it's always fun. Whenever you get to spend some time with Tiff, it's a good time.

 

The Dental A Team (00:50.061)

Well, thank you. Thank you very much. I totally agree with you on that. I love spending time with you. And I remember way back when we started doing the video ones, we were in Zoom and I was like, you and I were trying to figure it out. And I like, this is so cool because we get to hang out. But then also I have to make sure my hair is done. So like, there's that aspect to it. But I'm excited you're here. Thank you, Dana. Thanks to you. We did a ton of podcasts the other day.

 

Britt (00:52.945)

you

 

Britt (01:09.967)

Thank

 

Britt (01:14.866)

you

 

The Dental A Team (01:17.727)

And we like we went on this one that gosh guys, it's so good. So go back and listen to all of the ones that have that have released this month because it was really good. But we went a little long and so I was like, shoot, we got this one more we got to do. So let me shift it over to Britt. It was perfect. And today, it's actually perfect as well because I know you've got your hygiene background, which I love to pull in from you and Dana, I've got my assisting background, but you also have

 

HR management, you've done like health management, you've done, obviously you've ran practices, you've ran multiple multiple practices, you've done all these pieces. And what I wanted to talk about today was really learning how to read the schedule like a pro. And I think you have seen the schedule in so many different aspects as a provider, as a manager, as a scheduling coordinator, treatment coordinator, all of those places that it'll be really cool to see and hear your thoughts on that. So I'm excited to bring that in. And I think

 

To start us off reading the schedule like a pro, I really, really want to hear from you, Britt, what your thoughts are from a hygiene perspective on sitting in a hygiene chair, you've got your hygiene schedule, and then the rest of the schedule, right? There's the rest of the practice has a schedule. What is it like as a hygienist sitting in that chair, reading the schedule, your own schedule and looking around? Is that something that like hygienists are trained to look for?

 

Are they prone to look at the other spaces and see where is my doctor? What is that like? Cause I've, I've not sat in that chair before, so I'm personally intrigued.

 

Britt (02:52.39)

Tiff's the assistant chair that is like, what I'm watching like three chairs at once and you've got one. So I mean, with hygiene, it's easy for hygienists, I think, to get siloed, whether we're running a single column or we're running like an accelerated hygiene and running two columns. It's really easy for us to just get stuck in what we have for the day and not always take a look out at the schedule and see what's going on as a whole. So I'll encourage all the hygienists out there to

 

The Dental A Team (02:56.393)

Yeah, exactly. Yes, exactly.

 

The Dental A Team (03:13.311)

Yeah.

 

Britt (03:20.498)

look outside of just your column. think morning huddles help big time because that allows us to see, right, I can see what I have going on in my day. Assistance doc can flag things that they have going on in their day. If there's a time that's super crazy that I can be aware of around 10, like if I happen to have some time, let me go check in on them and see what's going on. Or if we have open time, is there anybody in my schedule that might have treatment that we can convert over to same day treatment to help look at the schedule as a whole?

 

So for hygiene, it's super easy for us to get siloed in our little column and just take care of our little world over there and not always be aware of what's going on. I think assistants can do it too, if it's a multiple doctor practice that they just get stuck in their one doctor and we're not looking out at everybody else, but definitely encouraged, look at the schedule as a whole. And if you have an idea in the morning of what's going on and if the team communicates really well, like whatever we're using messaging wise, if something changes in the schedule and we make sure everybody knows, especially if it's something that

 

I can help out with, then keep that communication open, because I think that helps us all work the schedule together.

 

The Dental A Team (04:17.618)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (04:23.24)

I love that. love that. Okay, I was just curious. I was like, gosh, reading the schedule is not it's not easy. First of all, like it's not easy learning how to read the schedule when you've got a ton of providers or you've got I've got some doctors who love a single column and they love to work out of one column with one or two assistants and like they've got it. But then I've got other doctors who are like, give me three or four three or four hygiene plus at least three rooms dedicated to me and I want patients across the board.

 

I'm like, okay, that's where it gets a little wild. So I always wonder for those practices, either direction, like, is it easy from that space to look across the board for a hygienist to say, this is where my doctor's at, or this is why he's not here yet. So thank you for that perspective. I think so I say when I was younger, my younger years, I used to say that the schedule was like a game of Tetris.

 

Britt (04:51.082)

huh.

 

The Dental A Team (05:18.545)

And I was like, it's a game, it's Tetris and I love Tetris and it's like putting it all together. And then as I grew into dentistry and I learned some more, I realized it's not actually Tetris, right? Because Tetris is like, where do things just fit together? And if we build a schedule like Tetris, those are the days when our providers, our doctors and our assistants even are like, what did you do to my schedule? So those are, I think of the Tetris schedulers.

 

Britt (05:18.748)

That's it.

 

The Dental A Team (05:48.078)

as the no white space. They're like, well, you see a space, fill a space. It doesn't matter what's there. It doesn't matter what goes there or who goes there, whatever else is happening. So, Tetris is the no white space game. Sudoku is the schedule game. Because you've got this little box and you've got one to nine numbers that need to go into this one box. But then you've got other boxes that one to nine also has. And you have to look in all of these different directions. So, you're looking up, down, across, diagonal.

 

Britt (05:50.96)

Thanks.

 

The Dental A Team (06:16.589)

and you can't have a repeated number in any of those spaces. So when I'm putting an appointment on a schedule, and if I'm gonna sit here and say you're gonna learn how to read a schedule like a pro, you need to go learn how to do Sudoku first. So if you know how to do Sudoku, you know how to look at the schedule because if I'm an appointment on the schedule, I'm looking across at all of those different spaces because sometimes what might be diagonal from me, from this space, might not be the same exact time, but diagonal.

 

Britt (06:27.189)

Hahaha.

 

The Dental A Team (06:42.807)

maybe my doctor is still in a new patient exam over in hygiene and I've discredited that not realizing it because I didn't look at all of the different angles. So when I'm putting an appointment on the schedule, I'm looking at it like Sudoku from whatever chair, even hygiene. If I'm putting an appointment in hygiene, I'm looking across the board to see, can my doctor get over and do the exam? Is this a good space for a new patient or is my doctor?

 

in the sedation, right? How many times do practices have that? They're like, tip, I'm literally the sedation provider. I'm the only doctor in the practice and they've got new patients over here on the, on the hygiene schedule. And I'm like, my gosh, we did not look across the board. So I love to think of Sudoku and then adding that factor, which I know Britt you love and probably loved as a hygienist as well, the X's and slashes. So we can Sudoku it and then put those X's and slashes in there. Now, Britt, you even in hygiene,

 

Britt (07:22.527)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (07:40.034)

You can just look at the doctor schedule and know where he or she is. I love X's and slashes. I know we talk about it a lot. We talk about blocks to simplify. That's another aspect, but Brit, tell me implementing, you consult, you've consulted for years. You have a handful of clients still that are near and dear to your heart. Hello to all of you. She loves you. And you've implemented X's and slashes.

 

Britt (07:44.636)

Mm -hmm.

 

Britt (08:00.912)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (08:06.527)

and how to read a schedule in a lot of those practices, not all of them. So when I say Xs and slashes, number one, mean, Xs are doctor time, slashes are assistant time in most cases. Some of your programs, think, Eagle, soft and open, then I'll do like colors or blocks or whatever, but it's the same theory. Just switch it out. How did you, Britt, and how do you help teams to implement the Xs and slashes?

 

within the clients that you work with, because you do work with a lot of teams and how do you find is the easiest way to implement those X's and slashes and gain the understanding on.

 

Britt (08:42.928)

Yeah, Xs and slashes. So two things that help us to be able to at least set us up for success with a schedule a little better. Block scheduling, because it's something like we've had a chance to review, we create our blocks. So in general, in general, we're creating kind of an ideal day with our block scheduling. And then our Xs and slashes implementing those is just all right, by the appointment, let's say it's a crown appointment.

 

How much time at the beginning is assistant time? How much at the end is assistant time? And it's doctor time in the middle. So it's just breaking down truly for an appointment, which as you do this and as you think about it, I would just go through all our procedures. How much time is doctor time? How much time is assistant time? It's also a chance for some of you to evaluate how efficient we are with some of our appointments. Because I've definitely sat there with some clients and it's like, well, after this, well, then they might just sit there for like 10, 15 minutes. And it's like, all right, well.

 

The Dental A Team (09:29.685)

I love that.

 

The Dental A Team (09:36.79)

huh.

 

Britt (09:38.876)

Just sitting there is an efficient use of patient's time, nor our time. So how can we tighten it up, get it more efficient by looking at those Xs and slashes? And that's really it is seeing breaking down the time. How does it break down most systems? You can pre -program those things. not, you combine treatment. It's not always going to come up perfect. So reevaluate it. And there's ways to communicate those Xs and slashes from the doctor to the scheduler. So we make sure we get them set up right.

 

The Dental A Team (10:04.242)

Thank you.

 

Britt (10:06.14)

but it's really just planning it out, seeing how much time it's gonna take. And then between your blocks and your Xs and slashes, just remember it's not always gonna be an automatic like plug and play. Like we still wanna look at the schedule as a whole and confirm that like, yep, everything looks good there. That makes sense with where I'm putting it. I think it's kind of like a scenario where it's like.

 

Great, go put the box on the table. But I forgot there's something else on the table. And if you put that box on there, it's going to fall off. But someone's like, well, I put it on the table and it fell off. But you told me to put it on the table. So look at the whole schedule. some common sense. Make sure it makes sense when you actually put that appointment in the schedule when you're using your block scheduling and your x's and slashes.

 

The Dental A Team (10:51.291)

I love that. That's so much good information. So reading the schedule like a pro, we're thinking about it like Sudoku rather than Tetris, but then we're adding that aspect of the blocks and the Xs and slashes to enable us to read it. So Xs and slashes taking what you just said, Britt, right? We're going to time probably time journal, right? You said let's make sure that we're efficiently using our time. And I think to bringing reality so that we can schedule it that way.

 

Britt (11:19.665)

Mm -hmm.

 

The Dental A Team (11:20.061)

When it comes to that, I find with a lot of my clients that number one, one of the first things I hear from my clients is it's never the same. It's always different because every patient is different. And I'm like, totally. I do not discredit that we are not working on robots. We are working on human beings a hundred percent, but there is a trend. There is a commonality somewhere. And when we start doing what Brett's talking about, where we're really looking at the amount of time that we're using,

 

that's where you find those trends. So you're going to find spaces where you're like, holy cow, this takes me way longer than I thought it did. I need to like be more efficient and use this time more wisely. And then there's going to be spaces where you're like, wow, this is the same every single time you're finding the average time per procedure. And then you're allocating where was my assistant time? Where was my doctor time? The reason that I love access and flashes for it is because a lot of practices forget to

 

Britt (11:55.739)

Mm -hmm.

 

The Dental A Team (12:17.341)

they forget to remember that the assistant needs that time. so doctors oftentimes will be like, yeah, well, we'll get you in for that crown. It'll be like, my time's like 40 minutes max. Your time is 40 minutes max, right? But it's an hour to an hour and a half appointment, depending on the time, the assistant, like all of those pieces. And we forget those in what we're saying. So then we come back to a schedule and

 

The assistants are like, what the heck did you do? And then like, doctor said 40 minutes. Well, yeah, but our assistant's new time. So the X's and slashes ensure that that gets in there. And then building the blocks based off of your average time helps to make sure that it's easy to schedule. So when we're reading the schedule, if we already have these pieces allocated in our system to make it easy, now reading the schedule like a pro isn't an issue.

 

Britt (12:59.474)

Mm

 

The Dental A Team (13:12.484)

It's when we over complicate things, we forget that there are systems to make things easier and more efficient, we over complicate it. And then we're like, gosh, they don't understand it. They don't know how to schedule. just don't. They're not intuitive enough to understand what the schedule needs to be. Take that out. Like don't require people to be intuitive. That's crazy. Don't require people to just know, put things in place that makes it so that anyone can build and read a schedule.

 

like you're asking them to. So that's my soapbox for the day. Sudoku reading. If you don't know what Sudoku is or you've never done it, go do it at least once. It's not super easy. They have like an easy version. That's my favorite. But just kind of see what it's like. I think it just makes, I it challenges your brain to look in different ways. So treat the schedule like Sudoku.

 

Britt (13:46.46)

Yes.

 

Britt (13:57.906)

Thank

 

The Dental A Team (14:06.026)

Utilize your X's and slashes in your block. So go time journal if you don't know what it is or if you haven't time journaled in a while Britt, how often do you have doctors time journal? What are you? What's your cadence for that? Like I don't have a set where I'm like always like, it's time to time journal But when do you think that pops back up because I have a lot of doctors listening right now They're like, I did that. I don't need to do that again. When do you think that pops back up for people?

 

Britt (14:31.11)

Well, I think that yearly is not a bad idea, but if we're struggling with our schedule, either running late or having extra time, it's time to do it because we need to reevaluate where our appointments are. So if you're like, what we did a few years ago, but we're having this struggle, well, guess what? If you're having a struggle, it's time to do it again because we need to dial in or adjust those times, right? And sometimes, a lot of times it's doctors getting quicker on things, right? That's a lot of times what it is.

 

The Dental A Team (14:49.476)

Yeah.

 

Britt (14:58.298)

Sometimes it's that we start jamming too much in together. They're running a million places and an appointment that really should, like it's still taking them the same amount of time if they went and sat in one spot, but we've got them jumping around. So we need a reality now of how long does it take now with how we have the schedule set up.

 

The Dental A Team (15:15.609)

I love that you said that. Yes, because things change. It's kind of like expecting your patients to never have a medical history change or like your patients that came in with the laundry list of medications two years ago that they're still on the same laundry list of medications. Like there's either added ones or they've changed. So to think that our schedule is the same as it was the last time we did it is just crazy talk to me, even if you're using block scheduling.

 

your new patients have fluctuated, your team size has fluctuated. If you've added providers, hygiene or doctor, if you've added assistance, front office, like anything that's changed within the practice, it's like expecting people's mouths to be the same every time, but they've changed medications or they've changed the type of food that they're eating. You guys know what gut health does. Like all of those things change the body. All of those aspects of life change the practice. So doing your time journaling and just checking yourself every

 

I think once a year is fantastic. Absolutely. And then every time you see like, something's changed. like to say, if it's not easy, it's not working. It's not that life is so easy. You don't have to work. It's that if you're pounding your head against a wall and something is hard, continuously difficult, and you're like, gosh, I'm just like running uphill. That's the universe saying something's not working. So take a step back, look at it from a different view and make sure that those

 

Britt (16:13.98)

you

 

Britt (16:20.454)

The Dental A Team (16:40.919)

times that your calibration is actually in place correctly, and maybe go back and recalibrate your appointment. So time journaling, figuring out those X's and slashes, implementing block scheduling, and then looking at the schedule like Sudoku, even if you have the blocks in there, still look you guys like the blocks and the X's and slashes are meant to take some of the thinking out to make it a little bit easier because it makes it so it's not so hard. But it doesn't mean that it's a perfect system.

 

Sometimes things pop in there sometimes things change and you have to still look at everything like Sudoku So you're looking at it from every different angle time journal X's and slashes Blocks to simplify the scheduling and then learn how to play Sudoku in real life and with your schedule you guys those are the biggest tips I have on reading the schedule like a pro now Brit real quick to wrap up from sitting in a hygiene perspective because that's gonna be dental assistant inside or

 

mostly from office utilizing those those aspects and those tips from a hygiene perspective. How how do you think would be easy? Like what's an easy way you could tell them to be able to see the full schedule? Maybe you know, three columns on doctor and we've got four hygiene or something from their chair, like how are they able to look at it? And what do you suggest for your hygienist when you have these conversations?

 

Britt (18:05.776)

Yeah, my biggest thing is make sure that you look at the schedule in the morning, right? So you know what the day is going to be and you're not just looking at your schedule. Look at if you've got multiple hygiene, right? Look at hygiene team and look at doctor side and look at your day and see if there's anything that you can do to help that schedule run smoother. And sometimes even you guys know, right? Hygienist, sometimes you'll see something in the schedule that it's like, that's

 

That's going to be a rough time and sometimes other team members may not notice it. And that's where we work together as a team. So I will plug huddle all day long and walking out of huddle, I will tell my teams walking out of huddle, you should feel like we have a plan to win the day. The day should run smooth. If you're walking out of huddle saying, well, we'll figure it out.

 

You're setting yourself up for failure and a really rough day. So work together in the morning, make sure we review it, make sure we've got a plan for the day. And then my other plug will be for the entire team is then communicate. So like if you need help with something in this schedule or if something changes that's going to impact someone, I think all clinical Tiff, you could probably even like chime in on this, will appreciate if something changes in the schedule, whether it falls off the schedule or you've added something.

 

It's good for me to know even if I'm trying to keep an eye on it, because we're thinking, we might be with a patient, we're thinking of the next thing. And if I'm rushing because I have that next patient and that next patient just fell off the schedule, which means I can be a little more present with this current one, it's really helpful for the team to communicate it so we know what's going on and we can make those little pivots or adjustments. Or if I don't think I have something and you add something and I'm kind of not to lollygag, but I'm like, I've got some time, spend a couple of extra minutes with that patient.

 

but then I realize I've got someone else that I didn't see there before, it's good for me to know so I can better manage time.

 

The Dental A Team (20:01.683)

Yeah, I love that. I've done that to my hygienist before and they were like, I had no idea and I'm like, well, now we're 10 minutes behind. then everybody sat. So everybody sat each other's throat. So I always say over communicate those types of situations like tell people even if you feel like they knew or they saw the schedule that comes like over communicate. So I love that. So morning huddles, make sure that you guys are talking about the schedule and morning huddles. And that means like reading the schedule, right? Not like we're doing five fillings on this patient, but

 

Britt (20:07.013)

Exactly.

 

Britt (20:11.8)

Hello?

 

The Dental A Team (20:29.423)

really looking at the schedule and what those aspects are. Look at the schedule like Sudoku. Over communicate you guys when there's changes or things that you need. And then to make it super easy, utilize those X's and slashes on the block scheduling and time journal frequently to ensure that those are spot on, especially if you feel like you're hitting a wall. Brit, I love your perspective. I love that I can pull the hygiene side out of there. So thank you for that. I loved having you here today. This was so much fun.

 

Thank you for being here. Thank you for all of your tips and for your hygiene aspect there. I truly value what you're able to do for all of our clients and all of our listeners. So thank you.

 

Britt (21:08.7)

I mean, thanks for having me. I love the hygiene assistant duo. Like it really is the best. It's so much fun. And maybe it's coming from being around assistants so much, but I love the assistant brain and I appreciate that our brains work a little different. And so it's fun to come together on these things.

 

The Dental A Team (21:12.185)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (21:22.096)

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I have to tell you, my sister this morning is like, have all this laundry to do. And I'm like, I would just do it. And I'm like going through the process of how I would do her 16 loads of laundry. And she was like, I just look at it and think I have laundry all day and you look at it as how can I make this the most efficient? And I literally said, I think it's from assisting for so many years that I'm like,

 

Britt (21:36.397)

Hahaha

 

The Dental A Team (21:46.788)

just like weave in and out and fit things where they go. But thank you for that. I appreciate it. We could, we can build a beautiful life together.

 

Britt (21:51.954)

Thank

 

Britt (21:55.218)

Assistants are the master multitaskers to make it as easy as possible and Tiff truly is ease. Tiff will look at anything which is the great thing about her and say how can we make this easy?

 

The Dental A Team (21:59.779)

my god, yes. Thank you.

 

The Dental A Team (22:05.711)

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. I don't like stress. I hate being stressed out. So if it's stressful, and it's not easy, it's not for me. And that means it needs to be changed. So I appreciate that. But thank you so much for being here. You guys. This was an amazing podcast. I hope you're taking notes if you were driving, then stop take some notes when you get to where you're going. We listen to this, you can speed it up. You know, you probably have us on like 1 .75 already. But you can speed us up. re listen, take the notes, reach out when you need to reach out.

 

Britt (22:08.69)

Let's not.

 

The Dental A Team (22:34.958)

We're here Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We love chatting with you guys clients. Now future clients, just a listener like whatever you are, we love to hear from you. So please don't hesitate to reach out and as always drop us a five star review below. Helps us know that this content was super beneficial for you. And also as you're in there, you can give your own tips and tricks and telling you people do listen to that or read them excuse me while they're listening here.

 

They do read them and so they are taking away your tips and they are understanding that this is a valuable podcast. So thank you so much you guys and we'll catch you next time.